Foldable support frame for garment bags



Dec. 26, 1950 B. com 2,535,525

FOLDABLE SUPPORT FRAME FOR GARMENT BAGS Filed Jan. 10, 1949 'INVE'NTCIDR 40f BERNARD COEW/N ATTORNEY.

Patented Dec. 26, 1950 FOLDABLE SUPPORT FRAME FOR GARMENT BAGS Bernard Corwin, Easton, Pa.

Application January 10, 1949, Serial No. 7 0,057

3 Claims.

This invention relates to a folding frame for foldable garment bags.

The principal object of this invention is the provision of a foldable frame of the character described which is vastly improved in many respects over corresponding frames of the prior art. In the first place, the frame herein claimed includes a swivel connection for the hook which supports it, allowing 180 of relative angular movement between the hook and the frame to facilitate hanging the garment bag of which said frame is a part, from any available support, whether that support be a clothes rod in a closet or a closet door in a hotel room. The hook constructions of the garment bags of the prior art are so designed as to be usable solely in connection with supporting members, such as clothes rods in closets, which extend transversely of the clothes hangers in said garment bags. This limitation renders it difficult, if not impossible, to hang conventional garment bags from temporary supports such as closet doors.

The foldable frame of the present invention constitutes an improvement over the prior art frames in another respect: it is provided with a locking member which looks the clothes hangers to the frame and prevents displacement thereof when the garment bag is moved from place to place.

A further respect in which the present gar.- ment bag frame is superior to the frames of the prior art is in its unique foldability wherein provision is made for anchoring the supporting hook to the frame proper and thereby preventing the hook from flapping about in uncontrolled fashion.

The foldable frame herein described and claimed is also unique in that it is shaped to conform to the shape of conventional clothes hangers with their sloping shoulders. This sloping shape of the frame herein claimed is apparent only when the frame is set up for use. When it is folded for shipping or other purposes, it assumes a completely flat, compact shape.

'These advantages are inherent in the construction of this frame. More specifically, the swivel connection between the supporting hook and the frame, first above mentioned, involves the use of a semi-circular member which is in engagement with an eye formed at the lower end of the supporting hook. By virtue of this (c1. zip-11s) eye, the hook is enabled to travel along said semi-circular member a full 180. Said semicircular member lies in a horizontal plane, being based upon a diametric line which extends transversely of the clothes hangers in the garment bag. Hence the supporting hook is enabled to swivel on said semi-circular member from one position to a diametrically opposed position and through all intermediate positions.

Insofar as the locking member is concerned, which looks the clothes hangers in place, said locking member is simply a slidably mounted locking bar which is movable toward and away from the hooks of said clothes hangers and into and out of engagement therewith. The clothes hanger hooks are supported by a looped or corrugated bar and the movement of said locking bar is toward or away from said corrugated bar, whereby the corrugations are either closed or opened depending upon whether it is desired to lock the clothes hanger hooks in place or to free them for removal from their said corrugated supporting bar.

The present frame is also unique in its ability to fold into fiat, compact form. It comprises two shoulder pieces and a corrugated clothes hanger supporting bar, said shoulder pieces and said bar being pivotally connected to each other for movement into and out of a common plane. The garment has supporting hook is also pivot.- ally or swivelly connected to said corrugated bar so that it too may be brought into and out of said common plane. When the two shoulder members are brought into a common or substantially common plane, they enter into interlocking engagement with each other to prevent relative movement between them. The supporting hook may also be interlocked between said shoulder members to prevent independent movement on it part.

The sloping shoulders of the instant frame are due to the fact that although they are adapted for pivotal movement in a given direction into a common plane, they cannot pivot in the opposite direction into the same common plane. Instead, their movement in said direction is limited to slightly more than or a total which exceeds When they thus reach the limit of their movement in said opposite direction, they achieve the sloping shoulder effect above referred to.

A preferred form of the present invention is shown in the accompanying drawing, in which:

Fig. 1 is a side view thereof, showing it set up and available for use in a garment bag.

Fig. 2 is a top View thereof.

Fig. 3 is an end view thereof.

Fig. 4 is an enlarged, detailed view of said frame, showing it in folded condition.

Fig. 5 is a side edge view of said folded frame.

Fig. 6 is a sectional view on the line 66 of Fig. 4.

Fig. 7 is a sectional view on the line l'l of Fig. 6.

It will be seen in the drawing that the foldable frame herein claimed comprises a pair of substantially U-shaped shoulder pieces in and H respectively, a corrugated clothes hanger supporting bar 12, a locking bar E3 on said corrugated bar and a supporting hook Hi.

The arms of U-shaped shoulder pieces I 6 and II are looped at their respective ends to form loops or eyes 2?). Corrugated bar l2 has a pair of aligned, outwardly extending end portions 2!, which are offset from the corrugated portion of said corrugated bar and which extend through the eyes of said shoulder pieces ii! and M. It is upon these end pieces of the corrugated rod that the U-shaped shoulder members pivot into open Or folded position. By the same token corrugated bar !2 is free to pivot relative to said shoulder member and hence all three members are enabled to pivot into a substantially common plane for shipping and s milar purposes.

The outwardly extending ends 21 of the corrugated bar are connected to the bar by means of arm portions 25 which are integral with said end portions as well as with the corrugated portion of the bar proper. In the form of invention shown in the drawing, this corrugated bar is provided with two pairs of downwardly extending loops 255 wherein the loops of each pair are appropriately spaced from each other and each pair is appropriately spaced from the other pair. Intermediate the two pairs Of loops 25 is a loop 3% which, as seen in Fig. 4, extends up- Wardly in a vertical plane and then forwardly in a horizontal plane. It is this forw rdly extending hor zontal portion of loo 353 that constitutes the semi-circula member first abo e mentioned which allows the sunnorting hook it to swivel to the extent of a full 180. Actually, hook it is provided at its lower end with an eye it and it is this eye which is in engagement with said semi-circ lar loop portion sea. It will be seen in Figs. 1 and 2 that when the frame is set up for use in garment bag Ml semi-circular portion 33a lies on a horirontal plane. It is by virtue of this feature that supporting hook M is enabled to travel a semi-circ lar path about a vertical ax s for the purposes above described.

Locking bar 13 above mentioned is similarly provided with eyes ll on both its ends. These eyes engage arms 25 of the corrugated bar in such manner as to enable the locking bar to slide on said arms 25 toward and away from loops 25 of the corrugated bar. To look the clothes hangers in place on said corrugated bar, the locking bar is brought downwardly from its position in Fig. 3 to its position in Fig. 4, until it enters into engagement with the hooks of the clothes hangers (not shown). Notches i261. are formed in loop 39 for selective engagement with said looking bar to fixedly position it relative to the corrugated bar.

In addition to its movement along the semicircular loop 30a, supporting hook i4 is adapted to swivel on said semi-circular loop portion, said semi-circular loop portion being used as the fulcrum in such swivelling movement. For an illustration of such swivelling movement, see the dot and dash representation Ma of hook M in Fig. 3, showing how the hook can be supported from a vertically extending member 56 such as a closet door.

It has been stated that shoulder members In and H are pivotally connected to each other by means of eyes 2!! formed thereon, and rod end portions 2| which extend through said eyes. One of the arms of each shoulder member is provided with a bend 55. When the two shoulder members are pivoted into a substantially common plane, as seen in Figs. 4 and 5, they inter-engage each other and are locked into such inter-engagement by means of said bent portions 55. When these shoulder members are in such inter-engaged position, supporting hook I l may be slipped between them in the manner shown in Fig. 4. It is therefore possible to lock said supporting hook in place, in a substantially common plane with the shoulder members, for shipping and other purposes.

Clips fill which are substantially U-shaped members with registering holes formed in their arms are mounted by means of said holes on rod ends 2!. They straddle eyes 2c of the shoulder members to hold them in proper relationship, End portions 2| are peened over or otherwise deformed to prevent said clips and hence shoulder member eves 29 from slipping off said ends 2!. In addition to holding eyes 2d together, clips at perform another function: they prevent pivotal movement of the shoulder members downwardly and toward each other beyond their respective positions as shown in 1. The shoulder members are thus enabled to assume their shoulder sloping positions but they are not permitted to pivot toward each other beyond that point.

It will be understood that the foregoing, which is merely illustrative of the pre ent invention, may be modified or varied in many ways within the broad scope of the present invention.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is:

1. A foldable frame for garment bags comprising a pair of shoulder members which are pivotally connected to each other, a pair of U-shaped clips pivotally connected to said shoulder members to prevent pivotal movement thereof beyond a given point. a corrugated clothes hanger supporting bar having arm portions pivotally connected to said shoulder members and a frame supporting hook swivelly connected to said corrugated a locking member being slidably mounted on said arm portions for movement toward and away from said bar to close and open the corrugations for locking and unlocking purposes.

2. A foldable frame in accordancewith claim 1. in which notches are provided in the corrugated bar, in an intermediate part thereof which is oifset from the corrugations therein, for engagement with said locking member, whereby the locking member may be selectively fixed in position relative to the corrugated bar. 7

3. A foldable frame in accordance with claim 1, in which the shoulder members are inter-engageable with each other when they are pivoted toward each other into a substantially common plane, each shoulder member being provided with a bent portion which interlocks with the other shoulder member and in which the hook is swivelly movable into interlocking engagement with the interlocked shoulder members to fixedly position said hook relative to said shoulder members.

BERNARD CORWIN.

REFERENCES CITED UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Number Name Date Normandy Jan. 7, 1919 'James Jan, 10, 1928 Luery July 31, 1928 Ferguson July 9, 1929 Freedman Sept. 19, 1933 Kemmitt Feb. 3, 1942 Smith Dec. 19, 1944 FOREIGN PATENTS Country Date Great Britain Dec. 7, 1922 

